


Love In Idleness

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Ancient Greece, Arranged Marriage, Elves, Fae & Fairies, Inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Magic, Midsummer Night's Dream References, Misunderstandings, References to Shakespeare
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:20:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28684710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Lucas realizes that this is not like other nights when Jungwoo’s tears start to slide down his cheeks for the first time since he and Taeyong cried in the courtroom after he and Jaehyun broke the news to the Earl, and the two of them sobbed until neither of them could gather enough air in their lungs to speak a coherent word anymore.Lucas quickly moves to the head of the bed and cups Jungwoo’s cheeks to wipe his tears away. “Lucas, I can’t marry Jaehyun. I want him and Taeyong to be happy.Iwant to be happy. I won’t be happy in the Amazon, away from you, married to someone I don’t love.”His voice cracks. “Lucas, I want to marry you.”“Jungwoo,” Lucas’s voice is low; a secret only between them. “heaven knows that I’d marry you in a heartbeat. But I am not your betrothed.”“My betrothed,” it pains Jungwoo to even address Jaehyun as such. “has promised his heart and all the love in it to someone else, and in turn he was promised the same unconditional love. And here I am, doing the same to you, because there is no one else under the moon that I’d ever want to pledge myself to but you.”
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Lee Taeyong, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	1. Chapter 1

_“If we shadows have offended,  
think but this and all is mended—  
that you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear  
And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding but a dream.  
Gentles, do not reprehend  
If you pardon, I will mend  
And as I am an honest Puck;  
if we have unearned luck, now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue  
We will make amends ere long, else the Puck a liar call  
So, good night unto you all!  
Give me your hands if we be friends  
and Robin shall restore amends.”_

_ㅡA Midsummer Night’s Dream,  
Act 5 Scene 1; Puck’s Farewell_

Four days before their wedding, Theseus couldn’t wait for the old moon to give way to the new moon. With the blade of his sword under Hippolyta’s chin, he fell in love with the Amazon’s warrior queen, now Athens’s beloved duchess. The city was blessed with days of extravagant public festivities and celebration.

Two decades later, Athens will celebrate again. Yet Jungwoo can’t fathom how his father thought of four days as too long of a wait when he’s seated on his bed and dreading the coming of the new moon. He resented the sunsets, because in his sleep time passed faster, and before he knows it he’ll be married to someone he does not love.

He didn’t understand the politics of it all, when the son of the Amazon’s duke and duchess was obviously in love with Athens’s youngest Earl, Lee Taeyong. They’ve been in love with each other for longer than Jungwoo can recall, and it’s far longer than his forged engagement with Jung Jaehyun.

The only thing Jungwoo had on Taeyong was that _technically_ he was a prince, if his mother had not relinquished her crown to her younger brother to permanently stay in Athens as a duchess.

This reason was incredibly unfair to all of them; Jungwoo and Jaehyun did not want to marry each other— Jungwoo hadn’t even thought of marriage until seven months ago, and after that every thought concerning marriage was about how Jungwoo didn’t want it. Not with Jaehyun, who until seven months ago was smiling at Jungwoo as he told his closest friend about how he couldn’t wait until he and Taeyong took each other as husbands and pledged their undying love for each other for all of Athens and the Amazon to see.

Taeyong’s crestfallen face will haunt Jungwoo for the rest of his days. The look of heartbreak on his face made Jungwoo burst into tears as the bitter reality of their situation dawned on him several hours too late. He was to marry his best friend, and in turn take away the happiness of the closest person he had as a brother. And more than that, it was decided that Jungwoo will move to the Amazon, and with that he was to have a new guard, one that isn’t Lucas, who watched over him long before he was officially named an Athenian knight.

Lucas, who held Jungwoo close when he burst into tears; who agreed with Jaehyun that eight months was a lot of time to break off an engagement as they tried their best to dry Jungwoo’s and Taeyong’s tears.

Seven months later and the engagement is still intact. The wedding will be held in Athens and Jaehyun had arrived from the Amazon two nights ago, under the guise that he wanted to be with Jungwoo more, when they’ve known each other all their lives.

Their parents didn’t question it, because none of them had reason to believe that the room next to Jungwoo’s had Lee Taeyong inside, under the covers next to Jung Jaehyun.

They are hopeless now and all they can do is dread the night that the new moon will rise. Taeyong and Jaehyun are as inseparable as ever, and Jungwoo wants to keep it that way even if it costs him everything.

“I knew you’d be awake.” the door to his room opens without a knock and Jungwoo doesn’t need to look away from his window to know that Lucas had stepped inside.

“I don’t want time to pass.” Jungwoo whispered. Lucas had heard this every night since the new of the engagement but that doesn’t stop him from sitting on the foot of Jungwoo’s bed and looking out of the balcony window as well. “I can’t imagine how mother was able to let time slip through her fingers for the sake of dreams.”

Lucas always answered the same. “The duchess loved her dreams as much as her reality. To her, time didn’t exist.”

“Because they love each other.” Jungwoo turns to Lucas as he says that, and Lucas copies the action to see unshed tears in Jungwoo’s eyes. “Mother and father wanted to marry each other. Jaehyun and I... that’s not our reality, and it will never be our reality. I won’t wake up one day and be ecstatic to live as his husband, just like how he’d never be able to do that with me.”

Jungwoo thinks back to his childish fantasies of not-too long ago but already far out of reach. He had always thought that he’d marry his knight-in-shining-armour, not his best friend. He used to dream of Lucas moving his belongings from across the hall to Jungwoo’s bedchamber, or the other way around. He dreamt of days at the orchard, picking baskets and baskets of fruit and Lucas’s lips sweeter than all of them. He dreamt of balls and gatherings with not just a knight on guard, but his husband.

But now he dreams of a lifelong friendship coming to an end as a matrimony starts. He dreams of a brotherhood that will never be renewed no matter how hard they try, and he dreams of his heart breaking at the end of every day at the thought of not being able to see the one he loves anymore.

Lucas realizes that this is not like other nights when Jungwoo’s tears start to slide down his cheeks for the first time since he and Taeyong cried in the courtroom after he and Jaehyun broke the news to the Earl, and the two of them sobbed until neither of them could gather enough air in their lungs to speak a coherent word anymore.

Jaehyun had called a carriage to take them to Jungwoo’s castle once the two of them had fallen asleep, and as Lucas and Jaehyun waited for Jungwoo and Taeyong to wake up, Lucas decided that he despised seeing Jungwoo cry like there was nothing good in the world.

Lucas quickly moves to the head of the bed and cups Jungwoo’s cheeks to wipe his tears away. The marquess continues to spill his thoughts between whimpers. “Lucas, I can’t marry Jaehyun. I want him and Taeyong to be happy. _I_ want to be happy. I won’t be happy in the Amazon, away from you, married to someone I don’t love.”

Jungwoo starts shaking his head and Lucas tries as gently as he can to keep Jungwoo’s head still. Jungwoo sobs and holds on to Lucas’s wrists to stop the knight from wiping his tears off. His voice cracks. “Lucas, I want to marry you.”

Jungwoo’s hold on his wrists tightens whilst he draws a shaky breath. “I want to wake up every day with the realization that I’m the luckiest man in all of Athens because I have you as my husband.

Lucas has his own set of unshed tears when he takes in the desperate sincerity in Jungwoo’s eyes, practically begging Lucas to take him far, far away to where no one can find them. The grip on his wrists are tight, as if letting go will be the final push Jungwoo needed until he resigns himself to a marriage none of them wanted.

“Jungwoo,” Lucas’s voice is low; a secret only between them. “heaven knows that I’d marry you in a heartbeat. But I am not your betrothed.”

“My betrothed,” it pains Jungwoo to even address Jaehyun as such. “has promised his heart and all the love in it to someone else, and in turn he was promised the same unconditional love. And here I am, doing the same to you, because there is no one else under the moon that I’d ever want to pledge myself to but you.”

If he had realized sooner, maybe then the engagement wouldn’t have happened at all; but Jungwoo was naive, and he only realized that he was in love with his personal guard when he woke up with Taeyong still asleep next to him on his bed, head on Jaehyun’s lap. Lucas was seated next to Jungwoo’s head with his fingers threading through Jungwoo’s hair and looking like everything Jungwoo wanted in his future.

If he had realized sooner, maybe the four of them wouldn’t be heartbroken.

When Lucas tears his hands away from Jungwoo’s hold, the marquess fears that he’s lost Lucas sooner than he would have if he didn’t say anything at all. His fears disappear faster than they materialize as Lucas’s hands are back on his cheeks and gently urging him to look out into the night.

“Heaven knows that I’d marry you in a heartbeat.” he repeated, softer but still as genuine. “I’d marry you under any moon, but the only way I could do that is if the new moon never rises.”

Lucas will give everything to be in Jaehyun’s position, to be the one that Jungwoo would marry, but he knows that there is little that will change the decision of their marriage.

Jungwoo once again shakes his head as it’s cradled in Lucas’s palms. “The new moon will rise in a month but I’d be damned if it rises before we are wed.”

Lucas knows what Jungwoo is thinking, and he’d gladly whisk Jungwoo away from everything if he didn’t fear the consequences after. There’s no reassurance that Jungwoo will be able to live happily with him if his parents decide to disown him for his rebelliousness and Lucas will never attempt to make Jungwoo go through such a thing.

“Jungwoo...”

Jungwoo shakes his head and kisses Lucas, deep and seven months too late. Lucas kisses him back, unspoken apologies and serenades exchanged between them when Lucas has Jungwoo’s hands on his shoulders. Jungwoo can feel Lucas’s thumbs under his eyes, rubbing gently in search for tears that have fallen without him realizing.

“Tonight,” Jungwoo inched closer to the knight and held his wrists again, this time to keep them on his face. “we can take Taeyong and Jaehyun with us. We’ll elope, and come morning there’s nothing anyone can do.” he let out a shaky breath. “Lucas, the new moon will not tear us apart. I won’t let it.”

Lucas looked at the marquess with the slightest trace of hesitance. Jungwoo had never looked so sure before; Lucas had never looked at Jungwoo and saw this much resolve and determination and hope in his features and Lucas knows he can’t bring himself to take it away from Jungwoo.

There’s no reassurance that Jungwoo will be able to live happily with him if his parents react negatively if they elope, but Lucas will give his whole life to make sure that Jungwoo will never come to regret his decisions. Looking at him now, there is no room for regret.

The squeeze on his wrists brings Lucas back to his beloved’s request and with an anxious gulp, he nods determinedly. “Okay.”

Come morning, time won’t be a dreadful concept to the four of them.

The new moon would be rendered powerless.

* * *

Donghyuck had his knees folded around a tree branch as the only thing that kept him suspended upside-down a dozen or so feet off the ground. His arms hang limp next to his head as he craned his neck to look at the elf directly below him, ready to catch him if he falls off the tree.

Mark sighed up at the mischievous elf hanging from a tree branch in the middle of the forest. “Donghyuck, get down from there. It’s past midnight, we shouldn’t be out this late.”

“Let loose a little, Mark.” he giggled and turned his body so he could look at Mark a little better. “All that babysitting has made you too uptight. There was a time you’d hang next to me, you know.”

Mark chuckled. “Donghyuck, I haven’t watched over Chenle for six years. What babysitting?”

The king and queen’s darling changeling boy was put in the care of Mark and Xiaojun alternatively, yet it seems that the mortal had leaned towards the fairy realm, much to Mark’s dismay and Xiaojun’s delight, after the prince had fallen in love with the fairy Jisung.

Nevertheless, the elves and fairies can’t wait until wedding chimes will sing throughout the kingdom loud enough for even the mortals to hear.

Donghyuck slips, and he yelps, flails his limbs around in hopes of grasping on to another branch, but sighs in relief when he lands in Mark’s arms. The moon elf stumbles from the sudden weight but steadies himself quickly, trained by numerous moments similar to this.

Mark shifts to carry Donghyuck more comfortably and clicks his tongue at the sun elf giggling quietly in his arms. “The only babysitting I’ve been doing as of late involves you.”

Donghyuck titters as he relaxes in Mark’s hold. “It warms my heart how well you take care of me. Truly, it does.”

If Donghyuck held any resentment to the prince for making Donghyuck share Mark’s attention with him, no one had to know. Besides, the prince had long since outgrown the need for a caregiver, and he always preferred how the fairies doted on him, anyway.

“The moon is high in the sky.” Mark starts to walk. “We have to get back.”’

Donghyuck looks up at the elf holding him securely. Donghyuck thinks it’s almost unfair how Mark draws his strength and power from the moon, because he looks ethereal in the nights. Donghyuck is strongest in the day but he doubted that the sun made him look as powerful as the moon made Mark. And with the sun out of the sky and the moon shining bright, Donghyuck is essentially defenseless against Mark.

“Mark, put me down.” Donghyuck tapped the elf’s arm only to receive a roll of his eyes.

“And risk you running off again?” Mark scoffed. “I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

Donghyuck relents, if only for a moment, because before Mark can take six steps, Donghyuck’s ears twitch at the sound of faraway footsteps. He taps Mark’s arm once again and he stops walking to give Donghyuck a questioning look.

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

Donghyuck hesitates. “It sounds like a human.”

“In the forest with the moon high? Unlikely.”

He hears more footsteps, whispers, leaves rustling. When he looks at Mark, he knows that he heard the same. Mark frowns. “There’s more than one.”

Tentatively, Donghyuck grins up at Mark. “Shall we check it out?”

“No.” he deadpanned at once. “You are a tornado of trouble.”

Donghyuck squirms in Mark’s grasp, effectively preventing the other from taking another step in fear of dropping the sun elf. Mark stumbles again, shifts as much as he can to accommodate Donghyuck’s insistent squirming without having to let go of him.

“Donghyuck, don’t be difficult.”

“Mark, we’re elves!” Donghyuck argued before falling limp in Mark’s arms again. “It’s our duty to make sure that mortals don’t get lost or hurt in the forest. It’s late in the night, do you think that they’re safe on their own?”

When Mark hesitated, Donghyuck knew that he found it useless to argue any further. Donghyuck hadn’t said anything false and Mark knew that he’d said the exact same words more times than Donghyuck has; and he would not have argued at all if he didn’t feel the tiredness seeping in his bones and the need to get Donghyuck to bed before he stirred up more trouble.

The second one seems nigh impossible now that Donghyuck is looking at him in that way that told him he would hold it against Mark for weeks and weeks and weeks if he refused; and Mark knows that Donghyuck can jump out of his arms any second and find the humans himself, he didn’t need Mark but it would put them both at ease to stay together.

The moon elf sighed in defeat and groused. “Sometimes I wish that you make no sense.”

Mark wasn’t necessarily weak when the sun was out, but he’s long since come to terms with the fact that he was at his weakest in front of the sun elf in his arms.

“Put me down, we have to find them.” Donghyuck tapped Mark’s arm for a third time and the latter complied. Once his feet were on the dirt ground, he set off toward the sound of the wandering mortals with Mark two steps behind him.

It doesn’t take them long to find four mortals, all dressed in night robes of obviously exceptional quality. If what Donghyuck knew of the mortal world was correct, then one of them was a knight, as the sword on his side was different from the other three men’s.

Donghyuck’s brows furrow at the sight of them. They each have their swords secure on their waists yet did not manage to change out of their night attires. It was clear that they fled Athens on haste and the elf was going as far as to assume that two of them were broken out of their sleep.

It’s late in the night and the moon is high but all four of them look alert, looking behind them every dozen steps and making sure to keep as silent as possible. It’s not hard to see that they’re not outside simply to take a walk in the forest.

“Careful.” Jaehyun softly said as he led Taeyong to step above an overgrown root he would have stumbled over due to the lack of light. The Earl’s mind was still humming with sleep but there was a much louder buzzing that was brought on by Jungwoo’s outrageous idea and their even more outrageous willingness to make it happen.

“Is there a war going on?” Mark wondered aloud. “They’re people of power, aren’t they?”

It was clear that the four of them have fled the city. Donghyuck and Mark hadn’t heard of any news about the mortal world being in war but it wasn’t hard to think that there had been an attack in the city and these four have barely escaped from danger.

“What are they doing wandering the forest at this time?” Donghyuck whispered but there was no point to keep their voices low or to hide behind one the many trees in the forest. The mortals don’t see them unless they show themselves, which even their mortal prince had mastered to keep control of at the young age of 4.

So, why they were whispering and hiding, they didn’t know.

“Oh.” Mark moved his hand and a branch swayed away from the knight’s shoulder, one he didn’t see and would have scratched him when he passed.

Mark, though, was a bumbling idiot sometimes, no matter if it’s day or night, and the branch ended up piercing through the skin of the person behind the knight.

“Ah.” the man winced. All three of his companions turned to him and saw an already bleeding scratch on his exposed shoulder.

“Jungwoo, come.” Jaehyun quickly fussed to sit Jungwoo against the very tree that owned the offending branch as Lucas and Taeyong fumbled with their satchels for something to treat the small wound.

Death be to them all if Jungwoo return with even as small a scratch as this one.

“Mark!” Donghyuck scolded and the night elf shrugged with a grimace.

The elves watched Lucas apply salve to the scratch, with Jaehyun holding Jungwoo’s uninjured arm and Taeyong staying on his feet. Mark, as subtly as he can, arranged a copse for the four to stumble into after they were done treating the wound.

“We should keep them in one place until morning.” Mark concluded as he willed more roots to the side and made more grass grow for a softer surface. The copse was big enough for all four of them, hidden by the tall trees surrounding it. “We’ll figure out what to do with them in the morning.”

Donghyuck hummed before creating clouds of light fog to surround the mortals to coax them into putting their trek to a halt for the time being. Donghyuck had been listening to the mortals’ conversation until now, where Jaehyun was asking Jungwoo if he was hurt anywhere else and the other simply shaking his head in reply.

“The fog is too thick to go deeper.” Taeyong spoke for the first time whilst he took note of the fog around them. “We have to settle somewhere for the night. It’ll be too dangerous otherwise.”

“But, we have no time.” Jungwoo protested.

Lucas sighed and stood to his feet. “Taeyong is right. We’ll move again at the soonest, but we need to find a place to rest for the meantime.

“We’ll stay here.” Jaehyun decided before Jungwoo could attempt to stand. “If there’s nowhere nearby where we can rest then we can stay here instead.”

Lucas waited for Jungwoo to smile at him before he nodded and led Taeyong away. Mark and Donghyuck noted that Lucas was Jungwoo’s personal guard, as it seemed that the knight followed solely Jungwoo’s orders and levitated towards him on instinct.

“Your mother will have our heads if this doesn’t heal by sun-up. “Jaehyun jested lightly.

Jungwoo tittered in response. “We’ll have to be back before sun-up for that to happen.”

“I left a note.” Jaehyun confessed. “I wrote that we decided to wander, as betrotheds, and we’ll be back before three days’ time.”

Jungwoo chuckled, dry. “Ah, Jaehyun, you really would be the perfect husband.” he sighed. “It’s such a shame that I cannot love you.”

Jaehyun only nodded but Jungwoo understood that he meant the same. They hardly needed any words to agree with each other, so Jungwoo takes comfort in Jaehyun’s presence and waits for Lucas and Taeyong to come back.

Donghyuck frowns at the realization. How painful it must be to marry someone you do not love. He wondered if it hurt as much as loving someone who cannot return the love, betrothed or not.

Lucas and Taeyong come back after finding the copse Mark had arranged for them. The knight is quick to help Jungwoo to his feet. “We found an opening nearby. We can stay there.”

“I wish there was a way to help them.” Donghyuck whispered to Mark. He had his eyes on Jungwoo and Jaehyun, a frown on his face. He applauded Jaehyun, who accompanied his betrothed in what is quickly looking to be a bold protest against the engagement. “The injured one can’t get himself to love his betrothed. How sad.”

“We don’t meddle in love.” Mark reminded pointedly. A series of event from decades ago resurface in both elves’ memories but they are quick to push these thoughts away. Their queen is still sour about falling victim to such magic.

Donghyuck hummed. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t know where to find such a flower.”

“It’s better that way.” Mark concluded.

“Does it hurt anywhere?” Lucas asked as he sat Jungwoo against another tree, careful of the branches and roots this time lest he want his beloved to earn another scratch.

He shook his head. “I’m fine, just tired.”

The knight nodded and stood. “I’ll keep watch in case there are beasts wandering around. The three of you settle down for the next hour.”

“How long do we put them to sleep?” Donghyuck asked as Lucas sidled the tree Jungwoo had his back against of and stood guard on its other side. Jungwoo propped the back of his head on the tree trunk and with a tired smile watched Jaehyun and Taeyong settle by his feet.

For some reason, ever since the decision of their engagement, Jaehyun and Taeyong have been cautious about sharing physical affection, even around Jungwoo. He could only guess how unsettling the situation made them feel and he could only pray to the gods that after this, his friends would never feel the need to be cautious ever again.

“Until sunrise.” Mark answered before another wave of fog clouded the mortals’ visions. Mark puts his lips together, the sound of his whistling coaxing the mortals to fall asleep. Donghyuck had fallen prey to this melody countless times and he doesn’t stop himself from yawning once Mark’s whistling reaches his ears.

Immediately Donghyuck fights off Mark’s whistling. He knows he won’t last long, he’d been practicing immunity against Mark’s sleeping spells but he’s never lasted more than three minutes before falling asleep.

Maybe it’s because Mark mostly uses it at night, when he’s strongest and Donghyuck is far from the sun to properly fight off the spell, but Donghyuck knows he’ll fall asleep soon after the mortals do and it’s only a little easier to stay awake because the spell isn’t directed at him and because he’d spent years trying to find ways to be unaffected by the whistling.

Taeyong was the first to yawn, followed by Jaehyun, and the lovers quickly fall asleep with their backs facing each other. At the sight of Jaehyun’s closed eyes, Jungwoo’s eyelids suddenly feel heavy, and with a yawn of his own, falls asleep as well. Lucas is the last one to succumb to sleep, and he dozes off with his back against the tree Jungwoo was on the other side of and his hand falls from where it held the hilt of the sword on his waist.


	2. Chapter 2

When Donghyuck decided to once again hang from a tree branch, Mark simply sighed and let the sun elf do what he wished. So now, Donghyuck, up on a strong branch and lazily turned to his side instead of hanging by the backs of his knees, had the perfect aerial view of Mark, who was asleep on top of a sizeable rock by the side of the copse.

The humans are still deep in their slumber and Donghyuck would spare them glances whenever he’d mustered up enough strength to look away from Mark. He didn’t need to make sure that the humans were still asleep if they were under a sleeping spell (especially if it was one of Mark’s, who mastered sleeping spells ages ago by practicing them on Donghyuck) but he gave himself the assurance that the humans were safe and asleep.

He’d look at Jungwoo the most, wondering how he couldn’t bring himself to love his betrothed. Jaehyun didn’t even dare comment when Jungwoo said that he cannot love him. How many times have those words been said that all he could do was nod his head in reply?

Something not too far away catches Donghyuck’s eye between deciding whether he should wake Mark up for company or if he should curl into his side and get some sleep himself. Past several trees behind Mark, Donghyuck can make out the faint glowing of something meant to be hidden deep in the forest. He sat upright on the branch and leaned forward in hopes of piecing together what was glowing, before he almost falls off the branch whilst he gasps in realization.

Donghyuck recognized that colour. Even from here, Donghyuck could tell that the flower was glowing the tell-tale violet of love-in-idleness.

Donghyuck jumps off the branch and quickly makes his way to where the flower had bloomed— the flower that he’s been searching for for so long that a part of him was embarrassed with how he was yet to give up on his hunt.

But how could he give up on his search for the flower when every time he looks at Mark, he’ll remember how much he wants Mark to love him back?

When he’s in front of the flower, he feels his heart drop to his stomache. The flower is beautiful as its soft petals glow the violet colour that Donghyuck only recognizes because of how much he’d studied on it. Donghyuck almost doesn’t want to touch it, unwilling to disturb Cupid’s flower, but the violet hearts splotched on the pure white petals taunt Donghyuck.

It’s exactly as how it was described and Donghyuck can feel its power radiating off of it when he’s yet to even touch it. Donghyuck can almost hear Cupid himself whispering in his ear, giving him permission to do his job and use the flower as his instrument.

 _Just one drop on each eye and Mark will be in love with me, like I’ve always wanted._ he thought to himself as his fingers curled around the flower’s stem. _Struck by Cupid’s bow, with the power to make anyone fall helplessly in love with the first creature that they set their eyes on when they wake up, may it be a mortal or a half-horse, and it’s here in front of me._

Donghyuck plucks the flower. _Do I really want to do this to Mark?_

Would Mark know? If he was under a love spell, would he know that he was? Would Donghyuck be able to be truly happy if Mark loves him not because he loves him but because he’s been spelled to? Would Mark be happy?

Donghyuck didn’t think he’d ever find a love-in-idleness, but here he was with one in his hand; magic so strong that his own queen fell victim to its effects. Donghyuck suddenly felt more powerful than he really was.

He always thought that he’d run straight to Mark when he finds one but now he feels a small tremble in his bones and his thoughts contradicting himself because did he _really_ want to do this?

They don’t meddle in love, Mark had said hours ago, but now Donghyuck had the means to.

He could make that marquess fall in love with the person he was to marry, at least. Donghyuck saw no harm in that. They were most likely bound together by a forged engagement but even then Donghyuck could see that there was familiarity between them. It wouldn’t hurt if Donghyuck gave them the final push that Cupid was taking so long to do himself.

With the enchanted flower clasped in his palm, Donghyuck returns to the copse where the elf and four mortals were still fast asleep, unaware of the power that Donghyuck currently had in the palm of his hand. It was almost too easy for Donghyuck to walk to where Jungwoo slept and tilt the flower above his eyelids.

Had Puck felt this way when he meddled in mortal affairs in the same way Donghyuck currently was? Had he felt the same nervous giddiness that Donghyuck is feeling as he watches the drops of nectar settle upon the human’s closed eyes and seep under the skin as that magic worked its way into his system?

Donghyuck hides the flower away after that. If all goes well with the human, maybe he’d use the love-in-idleness on Mark after all.

Donghyuck falls asleep curled up next to Mark, with the latter’s arm thrown over Donghyuck’s stomach in an almost protective way when he feels his presence next to him.

The sun rises by the time Mark’s sleeping spell wears off, but none of the humans rise from their slumber until later. Taeyong had shifted in his sleep and now had his arms around Jaehyun’s torso from behind and the latter had his hands tightly around Taeyong’s to keep them there. Lucas and Jungwoo stay seated against opposite sides of the same tree, the uncomfortable position sure to wake either of them soon.

Jungwoo wakes up first.

He rolls the back of his head against the tree trunk, brows curled above still-closed eyes as he wondered when his soft pillows have become so hard. He’s fallen asleep reading before but this must be the first time that he’s slept so uncomfortably; and Lucas always laid him on his bed when he falls asleep sitting, so waking up like this was new to him.

When he blinks his eyes awake, he remembers where he is and who he’s with. The sun is about to finish rising and the forest is glowing the peaceful colours of the early morning. Jaehyun is asleep on the grass, in a position more comfortable than Jungwoo’s and Taeyong has caged the marquess in an embrace. Jungwoo figures that Lucas is behind the tree he is against, if he stayed where he was last night.

How tired must they have been to fall asleep so suddenly and not wake until the morning? Jungwoo could vividly recall how they were running largely on adrenaline and even now his fingers are twitching with leftover energy. He can’t remember what brought them to sleep through the midnight.

Jungwoo found himself studying Jaehyun’s sleeping form. For some reason, his parents saw him as the most eligible— if not the only— candidate deserving enough to be Jungwoo’s husband. Neither of them were sure if the decision was made when they were still children and that would have been the reason they met so young in the first place, or if their parents saw how well they got along and thought that they were suitable as husbands.

Maybe their parents weren’t exactly wrong. They may have seen something that Jungwoo is only seeing now, with the sun rising and the calm of the forest around them.

Another burst of adrenaline runs through Jungwoo’s body, waking him up completely. He goes to where Jaehyun and Taeyong are asleep on the grass and gently prods Jaehyun’s shoulder to wake him. “Jaehyun? Wake up, my betrothed, morning has come.”

When Jaehyun stirs, Jungwoo can feel his eyes bloom with blossoms of love whilst he waits for the older marquess to open his eyes and Jungwoo can finally, _finally_ drown in Jaehyun’s eyes once again.

“What did you call me?” Jaehyun asks as he wakes, unsure if he heard correctly or if Jungwoo feels a little playful. He beams when Jaehyun opens his eyes, even more so when he removes Taeyong’s arms from around him to be able to sit.

When Jaehyun’s eyes focus on Jungwoo’s, his confusion escalates at the sight of his friend. He reaches over to touch Jungwoo’s cheek and almost retracted his hand when Jungwoo leans into his touch in a way that looks awfully familiar to how Taeyong would.

“Jungwoo, open your eyes.” Jaehyun requested softly when the other’s eyes fluttered close in content once Jaehyun’s palm was against his cheek.

Jungwoo did as told and Jaehyun almost gasped at the vibrant colour of Jungwoo’s eyes. He thought that it was a trick of the light and his sleep-induced state but now he can see that Jungwoo’s eyes aren’t the same dark brown that they’ve always been, instead Jungwoo was looking at him with a gaze made of violet. Jaehyun’s hand quickly falls from Jungwoo’s face and the latter looks at him in an unusual suggestion of heartbreak.

Taeyong wakes from next to him and Jaehyun’s attention turns solely to the earl.

“My love, are you alright?” Jaehyun whispered as he held Taeyong’s face. He smiled softly as he watched Taeyong blink himself awake and his smile grew when he saw the same shade of brown in Taeyong’s eyes; the same brown he’s loved since he was young.

“I am.” Taeyong answered whilst Jaehyun helped him sit. He was concerned by the relief in Jaehyun’s features. “Did something happen?” he takes a quick look around, as alert as he can be when he’s just woken up and there isn’t an immediate danger with in his face. “Where’s Lucas?”

“He’s asleep behind the tree.” Jungwoo solemnly answered and pointed behind the tree where Lucas was. He looked back at the couple and felt his heart break when Taeyong curled into Jaehyun’s side at the confirmation of their group’s safety.

Taeyong gasps when he takes notice of Jungwoo’s eyes, sitting up properly to get a better view of the colour. “Jungwoo, your eyes...”

He makes a move to reach over Jaehyun and touch Jungwoo, but the marquess flinches away from his hand dismissively. Taeyong is shocked at the uncharacteristic evasion but doesn’t dwell on it when Jaehyun takes his hand instead. Jungwoo’s eyes narrow at the skinship but makes no comment on it for now.

“I’ve never seen that shade of violet before.” Taeyong whispered and Jaehyun felt his stomache churn. If one of Athens’s best scholars had no answers, then no one did.

It was vibrant, shining with something powerful and Taeyong feared that Jungwoo is being held hostage by magic that none of them can save him from.

They shouldn’t have fallen asleep last night. They shouldn’t have run away in the first place. There must have been other ways to stop Jaehyun and Jungwoo’s wedding other than to run away and get married to who they really want to.

“Let’s look for help before anything else.” Jaehyun told Taeyong. “Wake Lucas. I’ll try to see if Jungwoo knows what happened to him.”

Mark and Donghyuck stirred from their place on the boulder. Mark’s ears twitch in attention but the warmth of the elf next to him almost coaxed him back to sleep; the sun made him warmer, both inside and out, and Mark was more often than not vulnerable to Donghyuck’s radiance.

“Lucas, wake up.” Taeyong kept his voice as low as he could whilst still pronouncing his words with small urgency. He’s on alert, unsure if Lucas is infected with the same influence Jungwoo is. “Jaehyun and I think that something happened to Jungwoo.”

That alone startled a waking Lucas to jolt but before the knight could jump to his feet, when Taeyong sees Lucas’s brown eyes wide in worry, he speaks again, relieved that Lucas is safe. “Don’t do anything rash. So far, he hasn’t done anything unusual but... his eyes...”

“His eyes?” Lucas asked. Worry and concern dripped from his syllables and Taeyong recognized its intensity to be far from simply a knight sworn to protect his lord.

Taeyong and Lucas stood as the former nodded. “I’ve never seen that colour of violet before.”

Lucas and Taeyong round the tree and see Jaehyun and Jungwoo still seated on the grass with Jaehyun holding Jungwoo’s face by the cheeks and inspecting his eyes. Jungwoo had a pleased expression on his face as he leaned into Jaehyun’s touch and subtly burrowed his cheeks into Jaehyun’s palms. Both Taeyong and Lucas stilled at the sight, even more when Jungwoo spoke.

“Jaehyun, I don’t remember why I was so opposed to our engagement. I no more see a reason to put an end to it.”

If Lucas’s throat hadn’t suddenly dried up upon hearing the statement, he might have been able to speak before Taeyong did. “Jungwoo, what are you talking about?”

Jaehyun’s hands fall back to his lap and Jungwoo turned to Taeyong and Lucas. The glare that was nigh completely hidden under Jungwoo’s violet gaze made the earl take half a step backward.

“I’m saying that Jaehyun is my betrothed,” Jungwoo’s stare pinned Taeyong in place. “and when the new moon rises, so will out marriage. Are you saying that I cannot do so?”

Mark and Donghyuck are awake now, sat next to each other on the boulder they slept on as they attempted to make sense of the scene playing out in front of them. Donghyuck feels feathers of distress fall from the ball of cotton lodged in his throat down to the pit of his stomache, tickling him in the most unpleasant way.

Lucas walked closer to Jungwoo and when the marquess made no move to dismiss him, knelt down next to Jaehyun and took a closer look at Jungwoo’s eyes. Other than this, the only other indication that something was amiss was his sudden compliance to his and Jaehyun’s forged engagement.

“What happened, my love?” he breathed as he took Jungwoo’s cheeks in his palms. “Do you remember what happened to make you say such things?”

Donghyuck feels his heart jump from his throat all the way down to his stomache, crashing into the feathers collected in the pit of it and making him lose the ability to breathe.

Jungwoo’s violet gaze was unnerving to Lucas as he attempted to understand its origins and effect simply by looking at it. He had never encountered a colour that was capable of striking fear into his entire being, and seeing that colour reflect in his love’s originally brown gaze gave way to the possibility of Lucas resenting anything close to violet, no matter the shade.

Lucas had long ago pledged his life to Jungwoo; he had also pledged his heart to the marquess, and that heart cracked when Jungwoo took his face away from Lucas’s hold and spoke with a firmness he had never directed at Lucas before. “I think you’re being highly inappropriate with me right now. Not only am I your lord, but you are also not my betrothed.”

Jungwoo, not once, had spoken to Lucas in such a manner. He had never regarded himself to be in a position higher that the younger with an intent other than to be childish and tease. Jungwoo, not once, had considered Lucas touching him as inappropriate— just last night Lucas held Jungwoo the exact same way and felt his heart him when he leaned into the touch the same way he did Jaehyun’s several moments earlier.

“Jungwoo, snap out of it. This isn’t you.” there was nothing more obvious that what Lucas had stated.

Jungwoo’s brow twitches, a frown already outlining his mouth. “I’m to snap out of nothing.”

Taeyong settled next to Jungwoo and looked at him in worry. “Jungwoo, you have to tell us if you remember anything.”

Jungwoo once again looked at Taeyong with a miniscule amount of resentment. What ever had drawn Jungwoo to feel such indignation toward Taeyong is another question unanswered, but Jaehyun was slowly piecing together the answer to that. If Jungwoo was acting romantically attached to Jaehyun then it made sense for him to hold some sort of hostility towards Taeyong.

“Taeyong, do you really not recognize the colour?” he asked.

“Colour?” Mark asks aloud and Donghyuck gulps when he hears. He’d created conflict between the humans without meaning to and he had no idea how to reverse the flower’s effects. He glances at the tree he had kept the flower in.

When he fantasized about finding a love-in-idleness, he thought he’d never need to reverse it. He didn’t bother to find out how to; but he knows that neither he nor Mark are near as powerful enough to reverse magic as intense as the love-in-idleness’s.

Taeyong regretfully shook his head. “I’ve never come across any type of magic like this during my studies.”

Jungwoo frowned. “Don’t talk as if I’m sick, or like I’m not in front of you. I’m perfectly healthy.”

“I don’t understand.” Mark wondered as he and Donghyuck observed the humans. They had been fine hours ago but now he feared the swords might be drawn.

“The earl must know about us.” Donghyuck noted, partly as a guise to being unsure of what Mark meant. They made themselves as scarce as possible but they could only do so much when their realms existed in one world. Information about fairies and elves are not as rare as their rulers would have liked.

And then Jungwoo shifts, and Mark and Donghyuck finally get a full glimpse of his face. Donghyuck freezes and Mark gasps, already turning to Donghyuck with an accusatory glare. The look on Donghyuck’s face said it all and in that instant, Mark knew that Donghyuck had something to do with the distress that the humans are currently under— if he was not the reason for it all entirely.

“Didn’t I tell you that _we don’t_ meddle in love?” Mark hissed under his breath despite their presence being completely unbeknownst to the mortals. He didn’t know that he’d ever be scolding Donghyuck for something like this. “How did you even _find_ a love-in-idleness?”

There wasn’t any real anger in Mark’s tone­­— there hardly ever was when it came to Donghyuck and his innate ability to cause trouble, but the sun elf still felt a frisson of fear rush through him all the same.

If Mark found out why he wanted a love-in-idleness in the first place...

“It was... just there.” Donghyuck answered with uncharacteristic timidness. He blinked at Mark with his lower lip jutted out ever-so slightly and moon elf almost melted right then and there. “It showed up out of nowhere and I couldn’t _not_ use it.”

There are many, many flaws with that reasoning, Donghyuck is perfectly aware, but that reasoning worked on Mark for a majority of the time; mostly because Mark has experienced enough Donghyuck-made trouble to know that there are genuinely moments where Donghyuck simply cannot stay put and not stir up some degree of mischief.

Now was not one of those times.

“Yes, you could!” Mark said with clear exasperation (there was still a blatant lack of anger in his tone, but Donghyuck knew that that would not be the case if Mark was scolding someone else). “Would you have used it on me if you didn’t think the mortals needed it?”

 _Yes._ Donghyuck clamped his mouth shut. _That’s why I was looking for the flower in the first place._

“We can’t let them leave the forest like this.” Mark concluded before Donghyuck could think of a reply. “The only ones I know that can break the spell are King Oberon and Queen Titania but we can’t leave the humans alone to fetch their majesties from the kingdom.”

Splitting up was out of the question. Neither of them would be able to handle four humans on their own; they could hardly keep track of them when they were together, seeing as how one of the humans is currently under one of Cupid’s misguided love spells.

Donghyuck was beginning to see the grave error in his judgement. It seems that he’d greatly misread the situation last night, because now it was clearer that crystal that love spells were not needed in the first place.

“Do you mean lure them to the kingdom somehow?”

Humans in their realm are not unheard of — their own beloved prince was once a full mortal himself, when he was a child— but it wasn’t a usual occurrence as well. He’d never led any mortal to their kingdom before and as far as he knew neither has Mark, so how they’d go about it would be tricky.

Resigned, Mark nodded. “Do we have any other choice?”

**Author's Note:**

> hello!!! first of, thank you for reading and for giving this a chance! i still don't have a clear idea of where this is heading but hopefully we'll find out together hhhhh *^^* this has elements of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" but you don't have to have read it to make sense of the story! maybe there would be some references here and there but nothing too confusing so don't worry *^^*
> 
> you can also find me on my [curious cat](https://curiouscat.qa/water_lili_es) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/markeu_tuan93) if you want to drop comments or insights elsewhere!!


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